Hong Kong's most prominent media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced on Monday to a total of 20 years in jail on national security charges comprising two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one of publishing seditious materials, Reuters reported. 

The sentence ends a legal saga spanning almost five years, and Hong Kong's most high-profile national security hearing. Lai, founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily newspaper, was first arrested in August 2020 and convicted last year.

Lai's sentence of 20 years was within the most severe penalty "band" of 10 years to life imprisonment for offences of a "grave nature".